School not key factor in rising levels of poor mental health in teenagers

Significant increases seen in teenagers' mental ill-health during secondary school is mostly likely linked to growing older, rather than academic and peer pressures associated with being in a more senior year group, finds a new study of over 40,000 young people led by UCL. Published in the British Educational Research Journal, the study provides one of the most detailed investigations into the link between mental health and school year, and finds mental ill-health is particularly prevalent among girls during secondary education. For the study, researchers analysed the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), which collects anonymised patient data from GP practices across the UK, and includes contacts made with primary and secondary healthcare providers. The CRPD was used to compare three cohorts of students, in Years 9, 10, 11. The findings show that mental health problems - as measured by contact with primary (e.g GPs) and secondary (e.g hospitals) health care providers are rare throughout primary school, but then increase rapidly during secondary education, becoming twice as common among girls (around 10 cases per 1,000 children per month) than boys (around 3 or 4 cases per 1,000 children per month). Lead author, Professor John Jerrim (UCL Social Research Institute) said: "The wellbeing of young people has become an important education policy issue, with suggestions that mental health problems amongst young people have increased in recent years, and that school may play a large role in that." A particularly difficult empirical challenge is separating out the effects of school year group from the effects of age.